1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to network communication systems. In particular, this invention relates to a secure network privacy system.
2. Related Art
As global computer networks, such as the Internet, continue to grow globally at a rapid pace, an increasing number of people and businesses from around the world are accessing these networks for both business and personal activities. As a result, networks such as the Internet have become a virtual community where people communicate with each other by sending and receiving electronic, voice and image messages for both business and pleasure. These communications may include sharing ideas and information, sending personal and business messages back and forth, researching information, expressing opinions and ideas both personal and political, and conducting business negotiations and transactions (generally known as “electronic commerce” or “e-commerce”). In response to this new electronic activity, businesses and certain individuals attempt to identify and track individual Internet users for numerous purposes, including but not limited to, advertising, market research, customizing information for Internet sites (i.e., “websites”), snooping and eavesdropping on communications, as well as fraud and other malicious activities. Many of these attempts are threats to the individual privacy of users of these networks because they attempt to gain personal information about the user and the user's activities online (generally referred to as “online activities”), often without the user's consent or knowledge.
These threats acquire information about the user by logging or tracking a user's Internet Protocol (“IP”) address (the electronic address that specifically identifies a user's computer to the network) or by installing programs or files on the user's computer such as “cookies,” ActiveX™ applications, Java™, script files, Spyware, or hostile programs such as viruses. These threats allow an outside user, be it a business or an individual entity, to perform such tasks as identifying the user, obtaining the user's personal information that is stored on his/her computer (including names, addresses, private financial files, and/or other confidential, private and/or sensitive information), as well as tracking the user's activities on the Internet, including recording every website visited or every e-mail sent or received by the user. Malicious programs such as viruses may also be installed on the user's computer that can modify, erase or destroy the user's operating system or personal files.
Unfortunately, many people that utilize the Internet do not understand how networks such as the Internet function nor do they generally appreciate the number and types of threats that they may experience once they connect (i.e., “log-on”) to the Internet. Past approaches at protecting users connected to the Internet include using “firewalls” to block certain types of threats, virus protection programs for detecting malicious programs, and spyware and cookie-file-removal software. These approaches, however, do not protect a user's identity nor do they protect against malicious users intercepting data between the client and server because they may attempt to disinfect a user from intruders after the fact. Approaches in the past at protecting the user's identity have included allowing a user to connect to an intermediate server (sometimes referred to as a “proxy server”) connected to the Internet that extracted off the user's IP information and substituted for it the IP address of the intermediate server, thus creating an anonymous user that could then continue to surf the Net without worrying that his IP information would be used to identify him.
These past approaches do not protect a user's identity as soon as the user connects to the Internet because connected websites are able to read and identify the user's IP address among other things. A need therefore exists to protect the identity of the user upon connecting to the Internet (i.e., known as “surfing the web” or “surfing the Net”). Thus there is a need for a privacy management approach that solves the problems recited above and allows Internet users to easily maintain their privacy.